Gianni Valenti News

For the second week in a row, Lorna Luft brought her fund-raising 'Pink Party' to the Broadway at Birdland stage with thrilling results. After a recent bout with breast cancer, the award-winning performer decided to 'give back' with two sold-to-the-walls events benefitting The Actors Fund's Phyllis Newman Womens Health Initiative and the Tower Cancer Research Foundation's Dr. Philomena McAndrew Fund. BroadwayWorld brings you exclusive highlights from the evening below, including performances from Liza Minnelli, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nick Adams, and more!

For the second week in a row, Lorna Luft brought her fund-raising "Pink Party" to the Broadway at Birdland stage with thrilling results. After a recent bout with breast cancer, the award-winning performer decided to 'give back' with two sold-to-the-walls events benefitting The Actors Fund's Phyllis Newman Womens Health Initiative and the Tower Cancer Research Foundation's Dr. Philomena McAndrew Fund. Check out a look back!

The Actors Fund, the nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment, last night presented the 2013 edition of Nothing Like a Dame: Lorna's Pink Party, a benefit for the Phyllis NewmanWomen's Health Initiative and the Dr. Philomena McAndrew Fund of Tower Cancer Research Foundation. This highly anticipated event, starring entertainment legend Lorna Luft with her special guest Liza Minnelli will continue on Monday, October 21st at 7 pm, at Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, New York City. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the concert below!

Over the past ten years, Jim Caruso's Cast Party has become the ultimate spot for show folk to mix, mingle and entertain themselves and the people who love them. It helps that Birdland, it's home base, has been a world-class music room since 1949, that the sound, lights, food and staff are all top-notch, and that the entertainers that drop in are accompanied by world-class musicians. This past Monday night, the cast of "Real Housewives of New York" joined in on the Cast Party fun. Music was made, fun was had, and there was some vamping, camping and scamping, what with series regulars LuAnn de Lesseps, Mario and Ramona Singer, Heather Thompson, and Sonja Morgan in the house. Ann Hampton Callaway created a fabulous impromptu song for the cast of characters, and Monica Mancini thrilled the crowd with two of her dad Henry's biggest hits, ably accompanied by Shelly Berg on piano and Dave Koz on sax. Beloved regulars like Christine Lavin, Therese Curatolo, Gabrielle Stravelli, T. Oliver Reid, Andrew Nemr, Lodi Carr, Jon Victor Corpus and Nancy Harms performed their hearts out. Jessica Keenan Wynn, Annika, Shane Stevens, Tabitha Fair, Cole Burden and Katherine Alcorn made brilliant debuts. Happily, Billy Stritch, Steve Doyle and Carmen Intorre were the Cast Party Symphony Orchestra, dazzling and accompanying everyone. Check out a look back below!

On Monday, September 9, the Broadway at Birdland concert series presented the return of Steven Brinberg as Simply Barbra in 'Mostly Marvin,' with very special guest star, Erik Altemus. Musical director for the event was Christopher Denny. Scroll down for photos from the evening!

The historic stage at Birdland was the spot that Broadway's Christopher Sieber chose to make his nightclub debut, which happened on Monday, September 2. The musical director for the evening was Joey Chancey, Eric Love was on cello, and the entire evening was directed by Fred Bracken. Check out a look back at Sieber's performance below!

On Monday, August 12, Julie Halston, the woman Rex Reed dubbed, "the funniest woman on the planet," returned to her Birdland roost with another performance of Classical Julie. Scroll down for photos from the concert!

On Sunday, August 11, Steve Kazee, the Tony and Grammy Award-winning star of ONCE, took to the Birdland stage with his band, The Shiny Liars (Lora Faye on guitar and Anthony Taddeo on percussion). Scroll down for photos from the concert!

On Monday, July 8, Stephanie J. Block performed the second of two sold-out shows at Birdland. As before, Block's co-stars from her various Broadway shows came to cheer, including Chita Rivera (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and Megan Hilty (Wicked).

The event should have been titled '520 Mondays.' On Monday, July 1, Birdland celebrated the tenth anniversary of 'Jim Caruso's Cast Party,' the unique and very extreme weekly open mic. Gianni Valenti, the owner of the historic music room, honored host Caruso with a Seth Walters portrait on the wall, usually reserved for jazz icons. (Caruso quipped, 'Somewhere, Charlie Parker is very uncomfortable.')

On Monday, June 17, composer Frank Wildhorn brought another installment of his popular 'Frank & Friends' concert to the Broadway at Birdland stage. For this outing, he brought a spectacular band and Broadway singers Teal Wicks (Jekyll & Hyde), Jackie Burns (Wicked) and Darren Ritchie (Wonderland) to celebrate the his Broadway and pop songbook. Scroll down for photos from the concert!

On Monday night, The Pop Show - a new series in the Broadway at Birdland lineup, celebrated the songs of Adele with an all-star cast and a packed house. BroadwayWorld has photos from the concert below!

For the past ten years, Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland has been the ultimate place for Broadway folks to mingle and celebrate each other, as evidenced by Monday night's jammed-to-the-walls open-mic-fest. Scroll down for photos from the starry evening!

It was one of the most love-filled, musically-thrilling birthday parties ever, when the folks at Jim Caruso's Cast Party celebrated the 85th Birthday of the most energetic, vocally dazzling, swinging nightclub divas on Earth, Marvelous Marilyn Maye. Scroll below for photos from the concert!

On Monday, April 1, Jim Caruso's Broadway at Birdland concert series welcomed the return of Broadway actress and cabaret star Karen Mason with her brand new show, 'Secrets of the Ancient Divas.' Scroll below for photos from the performance!

Julie Halston attacked the Birdland stage with an animalistic energy that caught even the most fanatical of her admirers off-guard. The opening night of her four-show run, 'Classical Julie,' was a who's who of the showbiz scene, and included Tyne Daley, Lisa Lampanelli, Charles Busch, James Lecesne, Danny Visconti, Shirley Herz, Peter Bartlett, Dan Butler, Klea Blackhurst, Natalie Douglas and Ed Windels, among many others. BroadwayWorld has photos from the concert below!

Singer Ann Hampton Callaway called it 'Musical Church,' and deemed host Jim Caruso the 'Irreverent Reverend!' Monday night's Cast Party was the be-all and end-all of extreme open-mic madness, with impromptu performances by some of the best and brightest on the Broadway, jazz, cabaret and concert scenes. Callaway led a blues vocal quintet, along with headliner Lorna Luft, Broadway leading lady Carrie Manolakos, Birdland's William Blake and Manilow-co-star Muffy Hendrix. Scroll below for photos from the concert!

Singer Lorna Luft has been absent from the New York nightclub scene since the closing of Rainbow & Stars at the top of Rockefeller Center, so it was a historic comeback-of-sorts when she returned to town as part of the Broadway at Birdland concert series for two very special nights. Check out photos from the concert below!

Acclaimed singer and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway returned to Birdland Jazz Club this week, ending her run tonight, January 26, 2013, of a special new show, 'Bridges' - inspired by the song by Brazilian composer Milton Nascimento. BroadwayWorld was there and brings you photos below!

On Monday night, the Broadway at Birdland concert series presented the second week of Anita Gillette's new show, "After All." The jam-packed house stomped and cheered as Gillette sang and recalled many behind-the-scenes events during her dazzling Broadway and Hollywood career. Scroll down for photos of Gillette and more onstage!